BOOK:Adrián Villar Rojas-Phaidon Publications

Adrián Villar Rojas was born in Rosario, Argentina in 1980. He lives and works nomadically. Villar Rojas is best known for his large-scale, site-specific sculptural installations. Within his work there is often a sense of crumbling humanity; a futuristic culture come and gone. Villar Rojas’ works combine the daunting scale of conventional public sculptures with an unstable fragility, reminding his viewers of the ephemerality of even the most imposing structures. His work demonstrates its own temporality, offering—at the risk of its own oblivion—a representation of the transitory nature of all things. “Adrián Villar Rojas” by Phaidon Publications is the first book to explore the fascinating career and fantasy-driven worlds created by the acclaimed Argentinean artist. By way of this world-building, Villar Rojas posits the question: what if we could see and think of ourselves—humanity—from an alien perspective? That is, from a detached, unprejudiced, even amoral perspective? What if we could see and think of ourselves from the edge of our own completed path? Villar Rojas has been the recipient of numerous awards including Sharjah Biennial Prize, awarded by the Sharjah Art Foundation (2015), The Zurich Art Prize at the Museum Haus Konstruktiv (2013); the 9th Benesse Prize in the 54th Venice Biennale, (2011); the Nuevo Banco de Santa Fe Scholarship for Young Artists (2006); and the first prize in the Bienal Nacional de Arte de Bahía Blanca at the Contemporary Art.-Efi Michalarou